Josefina's a bodybuilder with a difference!
Josefina Posch wants your body – or, to be precise, a part of it. But don't worry, it's all in the name of art.
The Swede is in Portsmouth for three months as international artist-in-residence at Art Space and has begun an ambitious project to create life-size composite sculptures of a 'typical' man and woman from the city.
But it will succeed only if she gets some help from residents who are willing to have their body parts cast and used in the finished artwork.
Josefina explains: 'I'm developing a project that includes body castings from live models and members of the Portsmouth community are an integral part.
'I'm looking for volunteers to participate by letting me cast one part of their body e.g arm, leg, knee, shoulder, face, head etc.
'The idea is that these body parts from different individuals will be assembled into two figures. These figures become the representation for the 'average' Portsmouth inhabitant.'
She adds: 'To reflect the demographics of Portsmouth I am mainly looking for males and females, white British 20-40 years old, of average height and weight. But I also want representatives from the non-white British minority communities in the area, as well as persons of a much older age.'
Josefina says her starting point is inspired by the techniques of Renaissance masters such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, who used several different models in order to create one ideal figure.
She explains: 'With the Vitruvian man, Da Vinci illustrated his ideas of the ideal human (proportions) which he saw as a "cosmografia del minor mondo" (cosmography of the microcosm), believing the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe.
'But my ideas, living in the 21st century, of the perfect figure or human being are rather based upon the beauty of a multi-ethnic collage of cultures existing within the same figure.'
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates the Portsmouth population last year to be 203,500 with about 45 per cent of the population under 40 years old. A total of 86.4 per cent are estimated to be of the ethnic group White British.
According to PRENO (Portsmouth Race Equality Network Organization), non-white ethnic groups in Portsmouth's population are 15,900 or 8.1 per cent.
The largest ethnic group is the Bangladeshi community, with around 2,500 people. Other minority groups include Chinese, Vietnamese, African, Caribbean, Asian and Arab.
Josefina is Art Space Portsmouth's second international artist-in-residence and is based at its studios in Brougham Road, Southsea. She follows German artist and landscape architect Frauke Materlik, last year's recipient.
The three-month residency is aimed at emerging fine artists with some experience of professional practice, who may have had limited exposure in the UK and whose work is engaged with contemporary debate within the international art world.
Josefina aims to get the two composite figures complete and exhibited at Art Space by the middle of next month.
She says: 'We live in a globalised world now and this is about who we are as people.'
BE PART OF IT
Josefina will be taking casts from volunteer models from 10am to 1pm tomorrow in the foyer of the University of Portsmouth's Eldon Building in Winston Churchill Avenue, PO1 2DJ. She says anybody is welcome to go along.
Please wear light clothing (protective plastic raincoats will be provided) and be prepared to have a body part, eg your arm, hand or foot, cast. The process will take about half-an-hour and you may become part of the 'average' inhabitants of Portsmouth artwork.
She says: 'I'm hoping that people will be able to come along. But it won't be the only casting day. Some people might be nervous about having a cast done in public, so I can do some of them in my studio.
'There are so many myths about artists and the way they work. I like what I do to be out there in the open, with interaction with the public.'
Josefina is also giving a public lecture on her art on October 11 at 10am in Room 0.01 at the university's King Henry Building, King Henry 1 Street PO1 2DY.
For more information on Josefina, go to josefinaposch.com or e-mail info@artspace.co.uk
PUBLIC ART
Josefina, whose work has been exhibited in Europe, China and America, is used to involving the public in her art.
For an exhibition with Duolun Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai, China, she collaborated with a local shadow puppet theatre group. They created a contemporary play using old techniques that for many years were banned by the government as part of the Cultural Revolution. It was the first time many young people from Shanghai had ever seen a shadow puppet performance.
In 2007 she was responsible for creating a large inflatable iceberg, placed in a public space as part of the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition.
Last year Josefina also took a cast of the famous Red Rock landmark at the entrance to Gothenburg harbour. The latex casting was later inflated and moved as if it was breathing when exhibited at the local art centre.
STUDIO
The Art Space building in Brougham Road, Southsea was built in 1905 by a local architect called George Edwin Smith. It was originally used as a United Methodist Bible Christian Church, but that function soon stopped.
In the 1970s, under the ownership of the City of Portsmouth, the building was leased by Portsmouth Polytechnic as an extension to its campus.
Art Space was formed in 1980 by graduates and lecturers from Portsmouth Polytechnic as a resource for professional artists in the region.
At one time the organisation occupied three sites across the city but has now brought all its artists on one site. Once an artist-led organisation, Art Space Portsmouth is now a registered charity and a limited company, providing low-cost studios to 28 artists and support to an extended membership of artists.
Aspex - Art Space Exhibitions was founded by Art Space artists within the large first floor at Brougham Road in 1981. It became an independent fully-funded gallery by 1990 and has since moved to new premises in Gunwharf Quays.
Art Space has since launched a new project space called GASP - Gallery Art Space Portsmouth.
To find out more about Art Space, go to artspace.co.uk
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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